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rom Feb. 17-23, the Wellesley African Students’ Association (WASA) invites the Wellesley College community to take part in Africa Week. Originally called the African Film Festival when it was established in 2004, the event as a chance for the community to focus on different African perspectives through film. Now, Africa Week is put on during Black History Month and focuses on having the community engage with various aspects of different African cultures. Aside from solely screening films, Africa Week allows WASA to invite different organizations on campus to showcase their talents in order to highlight the diversity of African culture.…

Every year Neda Nobari Foundation, a prestigious non profit organization that supports social justice in arts and culture, casts its spotlight on six people as game changers in the field of social justice.According to the NNF site: “Each year the Neda Nobari Foundation is privileged to work with brilliant and innovative individuals at the intersection of education, social justice, and grassroots activism. These change-makers each in their own way are pioneering new approaches that ignites a transformative potential critical inour 21st century world. Yet they rarely receive the acknowledgement they deserve.” Bijan Tehrani, Founder and Editor in Chief of Cinema…

Over the course of the month of February, the Bundy Museum of History and Art will be hosting a social justice film series, sponsored by the Broome-Tioga Green Party at the Bundy Museum Annex. The films being shown are “Requiem for the American Dream” on Feb. 7, “Frederick Douglass and the White Negro” on Feb. 14, “Sorry to Bother You” on Feb. 20 and “Trudell” on Feb. 28. The Broome-Tioga Green Party is a chapter of the Green Party of New York. The Green Party, largely a left-wing group, selects films that provoke questions relevant to their causes such as…

At just 25, her documentary short has been nominated for an Oscar. Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi’s ‘Period. End of Sentence’ is about women and menstruation in a village in Hapur district, on the edges of the National Capital Region, before and after a local activist sets up an outfit to make and distribute low-cost sanitary napkins. “The back story of how I got involved in this project is fascinating,” says Zehtabchi. “This movement was initiated by a group of 12- to 14-year-old school girls of Oakwood High School in Los Angeles, with their high school English teacher, Melissa Berton, after…

The best African movies are proof that the continent of Africa is rich with diversity especially in terms of culture. This rich diversity brings along various aspects that characterise African movies from different parts of the continent. The African film scene is a great homage to a very remarkable collection of top-rated movies. These movies range from twisted tearjerkers, classic comedies to quite chilling actions of crime drama. Africa is not shortchanged when it comes to a fantastic cinema filled incredible talents. Without a single doubt, the African movies listed below are a must watch. 1. Tsotsi Gavin Hood directs…

The 69th Berlin International Film Festival is set to begin this week, on February 7, 2019, and will last for ten days until February 17. The Berlinale is one of the major events of the year in European cinema, along with Cannes and Venice. The festival hosts the European Film Market, which is the world’s second-largest film market. This year the Berlinale sets itself apart from other festivals, and, in fact, award ceremonies, as it will showcase a good proportion of films directed by women. While the Academy Awards decided to nominate no women in the categories of Best Film…

The seventh Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival, that kick-starts on Wednesday, will set some new highs this year. Organised by Goethe Institut, along with Marupakkam, the city-based cinema collective, the festival lasting five days will offer an interesting line-up for film aficionados. Curated by Amudhan RP, the festival director as well as the founder of Marupakkam (established in 1996), the festival will screen around 35 documentaries and 15 short films from across India and countries like Germany, Spain, Russia, Israel, China, and Italy. “We have chosen contemporary films that are made over the past two years. Since I curate…

A look at the docs competing in the World Cinema selection at Sundance 2019, with topics including the impeachment of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, and a family fleeing the Taliban. Advocate (Isr-Can-Switz) Dirs. Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche Advocate profiles veteran Israeli human-rights lawyer Lea Tsemel as she defends a minor accused of attempted murder, and reflects on a past case in which she defended her activist husband from a charge of treason against the state. Co-director Jones previously played in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary competition with her 2012 film Gypsy Davy, on which Bellaiche — here making his…

The Bafta-nominated composer of If Beale Street Could Talk said the growing diversity in Hollywood “is one of the most powerful and exciting things that’s happening in film today”. Nicholas Britell wrote the score for Barry Jenkins’s drama, which tells the story of a young African American mother-to-be desperately trying to clear her partner’s name after he is wrongly charged. On Tuesday, Britell was nominated for a Bafta for best original music for his work on the film, in a category also containing Spike Lee’s white supremacist tale BlacKkKlansman. If Beale Street Could Talk director Barry Jenkins has been nominated for…

This year, the UCLA Institute of American Cultures and its four ethnic studies centers — American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and Chicano Studies Research Center — are celebrating five decades of increasing understanding of the changing social and cultural realities in America. The yearlong celebration will open with a film festival on Feb. 1, featuring thought-provoking and entertaining films made by UCLA alumni that tackle cultural and social justice issues from unique perspectives. Q&A sessions with the films’ writers, directors and producers will follow, and participants are welcome to enjoy ethnic food, entertainment…

Bridging The Border Award

At a time when physical, religious, racial, cultural, and economic borders divide the population of our planet, efforts to bridge those borders should be appreciated. In that spirit, Cinema Without Borders presents Bridging the Borders Award to the films that are most successful in bridging and connecting the people of

CineEqual

CinéEqual represents filmmakers, institutions, and community members with a focus on social justice cinema. As an integrated unit of CWB, it promotes a diverse, inclusive, and equitable democratic society that values the worth of all humans. The purpose is to educate our audience about concepts, theories, and methods related to social justice and to integrate ethical practices for solving social inequities through our online networks and resources. From studio productions like To Kill a Mockingbird to low budget films like Hotel Rwanda, I am not Your Negro, cinema has a venerable record of putting the spotlight on social injustice.

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Cinema Without Borders is dedicated to the international and independent cinema and it helps to introduce new faces and talents outside any borders and its goal is to create international communities of filmmakers and film students.